The $7.8 billion Missouri State Employees' Retirement System, Jefferson City, was the best-performing state pension plan for the 10 years ended June 30, with a 7.1% annualized return, according to just-released analysis of state pension plans with June 30 fiscal year-ends by alternative investments consultant Cliffwater.
The $7.9 billion South Dakota Retirement System, Sioux Falls, was second with an annualized 7% return, and the $10.1 billion Oklahoma Teachers' Retirement System, Oklahoma City, and the $17.5 billion Texas County & District Retirement System, Austin, shared the third-place ranking with 6.9% each.
“Above-average allocations to alternatives played a key role in all but one of these funds achieving strong 10-year returns,” said Cliffwater researchers in the firm's most recent “Trends in State Pension Asset Allocation and Performance.” Data for the biennial report were culled from the 2011 Comprehensive Annual Reports of 69 state pension plans.
The Oklahoma Teachers' fund was the only state pension plan identified by Cliffwater in which the “selection of traditional managers was the primary contributor to a comparatively strong (annualized) 10-year return,” according to the report.
